Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make (someone) unable to speak, typically due to nervousness, shyness, or surprise: The primary meaning is to cause a temporary loss of speech, often characterized by hesitation or stammering.
   • To deprive of speech: A more formal or literary sense meaning to render someone speechless.

Usage and Examples

• Verb (typically used in the passive voice: "be/become tongue-tied"):
  • She was completely tongue-tied when she had to give a speech to the large audience.
  • The unexpected compliment from his boss left him tongue-tied.
  • Meeting her favorite author, the fan became tongue-tied and couldn't form a single sentence.

Advanced Usage

• Figurative Use: While the core meaning relates to a physical inability to speak due to emotion, it can be used figuratively to describe any situation where expression is hindered.
  • The complex legal jargon tongue-tied the defendant, who struggled to explain his side.

Variants and Related Words

• Tongue-tied (Adjective): The much more common form. Describes the state of being unable to speak clearly due to shyness, embarrassment, or awe.
  • He stood there, tongue-tied and blushing.
• Tongue-tie (Noun, Medical): A congenital condition (ankyloglossia) where the strip of skin under the tongue (the frenulum) is unusually short, restricting tongue movement and potentially affecting speech. Note: This is a distinct, specialized medical term related to but separate from the verb's common usage.
  • The baby's feeding difficulties were caused by a tongue-tie.

Synonyms

• Render speechless
• Strike dumb
• Dumbfound (in the sense of causing temporary speechlessness)
• Fluster (can lead to being tongue-tied)

Antonyms

• Elocute (to speak clearly and expressively)
• Articulate
• Enunciate

Related Idioms and Phrases

• At a loss for words: A very close synonym to the state of being tongue-tied.
  • The tragic news left us all at a loss for words.
• Cat got your tongue?: A playful, idiomatic question asked when someone is unusually quiet or slow to speak.
  • You haven't said a thing all evening. What's the matter, cat got your tongue?

Verb

1. deprive of speech
   • When he met his idol, the young man was tongue-tied